Financial advisers looking to upgrade their software

Is your firm in the best position to succeed moving forward?

With many clients heading off on holiday, the proverbial summer slowdown can be a fantastic opportunity to take a deep breath and take stock of what’s working and what isn’t.

This year, with the easing of covid19 restrictions and adviser life moving into a (hopefully) more settled pattern, we are seeing more firms than ever before thinking about moving on from their legacy technology.

The pandemic clearly highlighted the issues associated with working from systems that aren’t joined up, software that’s linked to specific machines, and processes that rely on paper. Advisers are now increasingly looking for a web-based solution that provides secure online access from any location and device, can be integrated with other tools to support the advice journey and can share financial information directly with clients.

The growth of digital embracers

Many advisers have told us that lockdown proved that their typical clients are far more comfortable interacting online than they had previously believed. Pre-pandemic, everyone was used to doing things a certain way and switching to virtual meetings, client portals and electronic documentation was often seen as a difficult sell with little benefit for clients. Coronavirus quickly swept aside that perception.

Advised clients are now embracing the benefits of accessing their information digitally, exchanging documentation securely and sharing their wider financial information with their adviser through Open Banking functionality.

It’s not just the younger generation that’s moving online either. While ‘digital natives’ grew up using smartphones and tablets, the covid restrictions forced many of us to catch up and become ‘digital embracers’. People of all ages are now interacting online far more than ever before. The confidence among older generations in operating online is certainly something we’re seeing at intelliflo. Looking at the habits of 250,000 clients registered on the intelliflo personal finance portal, you might be surprised to hear that the most frequent users are those in their 50s and 60s, and that they are nearly twice as active as those in their 20s and 30s.

Supporting the advice process

As Amanda suggests, the benefits of modern technology aren’t just about improving engagement and delivering a secure means of communication with clients. Your back office system should also support a seamless advice process, bring identifiable efficiencies to your business, and help you keep on top of regulatory requirements.

With intelliflo office, you can streamline your entire advice process, so you key in client data once, and then use it for multiple purposes, giving you greater confidence in the information you hold. It also integrates seamlessly with over 100 of the most popular platforms, adviser tools and third-party products to generate real efficiencies and cost savings within your firm.

The business benefits of making full use of technology are clearly illustrated by our latest eAdviser Index, which analyses usage of intelliflo office. It shows that firms which have fully embraced the technology generate 59% more ongoing revenue per adviser and have 28% more clients per adviser, a 44% higher revenue average per adviser and 48% more assets under advice per adviser than those who use the technology the least.